The all-white jury in the state criminal trial was caused by a “problematic jury selection process.” Before 1986, defense attorneys and prosecutors could strike a potential juror from the pool based on race.
On Thursday night, former District Attorney Mike Schlosser, who tried the state criminal cases, said he agreed with those findings. Defense attorneys dismissed black jurors, which he said hampered his efforts to convict the Klansmen.
“It would have been much more fair to have a jury that represented the community,” he said.
[…]
Much was made over the years about the jury have zero African-American representation, but no one seemed to care about the prosecuting attorney’s public attitude towards communism and his proclivity to allow obvious anti-Communist citizens to sit on the jury.
These actions are more damning than not having a jury representing a mix of races, as they were prosecuting Klan and Nazi members for killing Communist Worker Party members.
On the flip side of the coin, the Klan members had court appointed attorneys representing them, who just so happened to be the top defense attorneys in Greensboro at that time.
After the defendants in the shootings were twice acquitted in state and federal trials, a civil trial found that Klansmen, Nazis and members of the Greensboro Police Department were jointly liable for the wrongful death of one of the five CWP members killed.
Instead of appealing the decision, the city of Greensboro decided to to pick up the civil trial award tab — $395,000 — for all of the defendants.
Jim Melvin, Mayor of Greensboro from 1971 to 1981, provides context behind the decision:
On Friday May 26th, 2006 The GTRC held a public hearing to officially wrap up their two years-worth of research into the events surrounding the Greensboro Massacre.
Unless you go through the evidence yourself and speak to both the survivors and citizens of Greensboro that lived through the experience of 11/3, you’ll never truly understand how scary that day was. Residual effects continue to affect many people in this community.
I salute the commission for taking on a project that invited them into such a frightening reality, one that so many of us have tried to sweep under the rug over the years. I say good for you and great for Greensboro.
The Commission finds that on the morning of Nov. 3, 1979, members of the Klan/Nazi caravan headed for Greensboro with malicious intent. At a minimum, they planned to disrupt the parade and assault the demonstrators (by throwing eggs), violating the marchers constitutional rights to free speech and assembly. Further, we believe there is sufficient evidence to conclude that they intended to provoke a violent confrontation and that this was broadly understood among those present in the multiple planning discussions. Those who left their cars to engage in violence did so willingly. More importantly, Klan and Nazi members have admitted since the event that they intentionally came prepared to use deadly force in order to be victorious in any violence that occurred.
I’m posting this from the screening of Greensboro’s Child. The Q&A after the 7pm screening was very intense. Not in a bad way either. Each person in the audience had a unique perspective and questions that furthered the conversation.
Come on down tomorrow night, 7pm, The Scene on South Elm, and check it out for yourself.
Q&A video to come soon…
UPDATE: Here’s some video from the Q&A following the 5/25 screening:
A preview of the first couple of minutes of Greensboro’s Child.
It’s hard to believe that I started this documentary back in ‘97. I was an amateur, in college, holding a mic and pointing a camera at an interviewee, with a light kit set up in no particular order and no clue as to the importance of white balancing.
Well, you live and learn. And have I ever learned some valuable lessons working on this documentary.
Today is the first public screening in Greensboro since it won, “Best Independent Documentary” at the North Carolina Film and Video Festival in 2002. The current version now has a soundtrack and is 15 minutes shorter than the award-winning version.
I have many people to thank for making this opportunity a reality:
My brother, Sean Coon — for his amazing blogging skills and great mind for creating avenues that I can take advantage of…
John Ford — Thanks so much for taking Sean’s design and making this blog functional. We couldn’t have done it without your help.
Jonathan Daniel - Another brilliant web guru giving some of his genius to help make this site a reality.
This song is told through the eyes of one of the victims of November 3rd 1979.
Scott is a great guy and very compassionate music writer. I came across Scott due to his admiration of my documentary. He compared 3 films about the Greensboro Massacre for his thesis paper at Guilford College. I was taken aback when a mutual friend handed me a manilla envelop with his thesis in it, as I had never met Scott before. The precision of his interpretation of my documentary was astounding.
This is footage of the November 3rd, 1979 anti-Klan rally held in Greensboro, NC named, Death to The Klan.
The organization that promoted and held the rally was named the Communist Workers Party (CWP). The people slowly rolling up in the cars are with KKK and Nazi groups from around NC, looking to confront the “communist protestors.”
Five CWP members were murdered on that day, with either the violence or their explicit deaths captured on film. After watching this attack, keep in mind that the Klan members were all acquitted of murder on a self-defense plea, even though this footage was used as evidence in the state trial.
